Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno goes beyond the traditional conceptions of place, time, gravity and our familiar notions of architecture. Saraceno is an artist and architect whos visions for cities floating in the air have led him to create a series of experimental structures such as balloons or inflatable modular platforms that can be inhabited and exploit natural energies. Any of his objects is an invitation to think about alternative knowledge, about emotions and the interaction with others. They invite you to participate, like Poetic Cosmos Of The Breath (pictured above), an experimental solar dome, which was part of The Arts Catalyst’s 2nd International Artists Airshow.
At dawn, crowds formed around a giant and colorful, circular foil, pinned to the ground at the edges with sand bags. Throughout the morning, the artist and his team gradually filled the foil with air and visitors could walk through this stunning colored wonderland.
My friend Cameron Ballensky has been in town visiting for a few days, so we’ve been out and about shooting loads of film. Me, mostly 35mm, him Polaroid. After seeing some of the unpredictable results yielded by certain films he uses, I was really turned on by the idea of exploring this format myself (also two of my favorite photographers, Reuben Wu and Neil Krug, have inspired this in me as well). Cameron mostly get’s all of his film through The Impossible Project, a company that now produces Polaroid film, and as I was exploring their site, I came across the beautiful work of Chloe Aftel, a Los Angeles based photographer and film director.
Browse through her beautiful body of work on Flickr.
Chloe is also part of The Impossible Project’s launch of a new instant film material for 8×10 cameras (image below). More info can be found here.
Japanese artist Yamamoto Motoi was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1966 and worked in a dockyard until he was 22, when he decided to focus on art full-time. Six years later, in 1994, his younger sister died from complications due to brain cancer and Yamamoto immediately began to memorialize her in his labyrinthine installations of poured salt. The patterns formed from the salt are actually quite literal in that Yamamoto first created a three-dimensional brain as an exploration of his sister’s condition and subsequently wondered what would happen if the patterns and channels of the brain were then flattened.
Although he creates basic guidelines and conditions for each piece, the works are almost entirely improvised with mistakes and imperfections often left intact during hundreds of hours of meticulous pouring. After each piece has been on view for several weeks, the public is invited to communally destroy each work and help package the salt into bags and jars, after which it is thrown back into the ocean.
Really enjoying the work of Los Angeles based photographer Nicholas Alan Cope. There is a sense of eerieness in his work, as well as just the right amount of “darkness”, although there are a few examples of his work I came across that were a bit too much and gore for my taste. All in all, impeccable use of lines, tones and texture.
Blog favorite Matthias Heiderich is having his first solo exhibition in the US:
Gallery Carte Blanche is pleased to announce the opening of Spektrum Berlin, Matthias Heiderich on Thursday, July 19, 2012.
Featuring the work of German-based photographer Matthias Heiderich, in his first solo exhibition in the United States, Spektrum Berlin challenges visions and stereotypes of Germany, in particular East Berlin, through colorful eye-popping urban architectural photography.
Viewed together or individually, each of Heiderich’s images transform the banality and universality of buildings into a mosaic of geometrical shapes, reconstructing the world we live in into an abstract canvas of lines, patterns, angular compositions, and vibrant colors. Saturated to the limits of reality, Heiderich’s prints, emerging directly from a 1980s color palette and influenced by 1950s and 1960s color photography and polaroid images, look at an industrial past with a present freshness and optimism for the future.
Self-taught, Heiderich doesn’t often play by the “rules”, however the influence of German photographic tradition is apparent in Heiderich’s work. Invested in the same rigor and pragmatism as Bernd Bechers, Heiderich creates systematic photographic typologies of industrial buildings and structures, emphasizing how each building is a product of human mind and skill. Following his natural instinct for composition, in series after series Heiderich experiments, searches for individuality, and cultivates a unique style and sensibility.
Spektrum Berlin, Matthias Heiderich opens on Thursday, July 19 and runs through September 13, 2012. The opening reception will be held on Friday, July 20th from 6pm–9pm.
Mr. Div is Tumblr I find myself (and apparently 30,000 other followers) visiting quite often, due to the amazing world of Animated GIF’s and Motion Graphics that inhabit within, designed by Matthew DiVito.
I intend to one day hire this man for my show visuals. Above are a few of my personal favorites.
Lake logos have a tendency to be, well, fairly ugly. This project was created to rethink what they could be.
One Minnesota Lake. One Logo. Every day.
Should only take a little over 27 years to hit ’em all. Stay tuned and enjoy!
– Nicole Meyer
Who wants to get something similar going for California State Parks, which continue to be in danger of being affected by massive budget costs, some might even be closing soon? Just throwing it out there…
